Page 25 of Kingdom of Chaos
“So to find Becks we just need to get to one of these gates?” Ensley asks, practically jumping out of her seat.
“It’s not quite that easy,” Talon says, his gaze flicking to me before returning to her. “Knowing where the gates are isn’t enough. They were sealed two thousand years ago to prevent anyone from crossing between our world and theirs. The gates that aren’t hidden are guarded.”
Ensley deflates, sagging back in her chair.
“Who sealed and guards the gates?” I ask, my hope still burning faintly thanks to what I overheard in the library.
“Us.”
“And by ‘us,’ you mean . . . ?”
“The Arcane Society.”
He pauses, running his tongue along his bottom lip. I can tell he’s deciding what to share and what to hold back. It’s a look I’ve come to recognize, and it instantly annoys me, until he starts speaking again.
“Our society was formed during the time right after the first Vampire King. Over the centuries, we’ve expanded our mission to include protecting the world from dangerous magic no one should access. But our original and most important charge has always been to guard the gateways between worlds and keep them sealed—and to keep Shadow Striker from falling into the wrong hands.”
He pauses again, meeting each of our eyes.
“We’ve already failed with Shadow Striker. If we keep going down this path, we’ll fail at protecting the gateways too.”
“Why is it so important to keep the gates closed?” I ask, and Talon’s gaze shifts to me.
“Nothing good happens when our worlds mix,” he says.
I know he’s not specifically talking about me, but it still feels like it. If I hadn’t entered Chaos, Talon might have recovered Shadow Striker. And even if he hadn’t, Kerrim wouldn’t have been able to use me as his personal human portal opener. He might never have stolen the dagger in the first place if he hadn’t discovered what I am. Any way you cut it, this all still feels like it’s my fault, even though I know it’s not and that Talon doesn’t blame me. Not like his cousin does, at least.
“Do they know anything about us there?” Ensley asks. “The humans, I mean. Do they know our world exists? Do they even know what magic is?”
Talon shrugs. “When the gates were closed, the general population didn’t know about us. Only a small number of creatures ever crossed into their world, and vice versa, but stories had started to circulate. About our magic, our powers. Who knows what they believe now? Generations have passed. We might be myths or legends to them, or wiped from history completely.”
“If, at some point, the gates were open and creatures and humans traveled back and forth, then why haven’t we ever heard about it?” I ask.
“Because we’ve done our job well,” Talon says with a grin that fades a moment later. “One of the Arcane Society’s main missions is to keep the existence of the gates, and the world they lead to, a secret. The greater population doesn’t even know that world exists, thanks to the efforts of the Society over the years. But one aspect of their world has leaked into ours. Demons.”
In the Ancient, Shadow Striker was said to be gifted to the Vampire King by a demon. But demons are nothing more than myths to us, malevolent beings mentioned only in obscure tales. Sure, some believe in them, but that’s not the common view. I hadn’t thought much about them myself until recently. But considering everything I’ve learned in the past week, it wouldn’t take much to convince me they’re real.
“Are you saying demons actually exist?” I ask.
“They’re real,” Talon says. “They just don’t come from our world. They were beings once close to the Creator, but rebelled when he made humans. In the human world, they have limited power. They’re not even corporeal, and rely on possession to gain a body. But when they cross through the gates into our world, they can take physical form.”
A chill creeps over my skin, and I wrap my arms around myself, trying to shake it off. The idea of something so ancient and full of hate slipping into our world, intome, makes my stomach twist.
“They’re obsessed with the destruction of the human race,” Talon goes on. “It was a demon from the magicless world who created Shadow Striker and brought it into ours, gifting it to the Vampire King. We believe it was that demon’s intention for the king to return to the human world and subjugate it. That demon remained at his side throughout the conquest of our world. To this day, we don’t know whether it was the demon or the dagger that twisted the king, but we do know the demon who forged Shadow Striker was incredibly powerful.”
Talon looks at me, and I hold my breath as he adds, “And there’s more to the story you don’t know.”
My blood hums. The Ancient about the Vampire King and his love feels more than just a fairy tale now. I need to know the full story. From the first time Talon told it, I sensed there was more.
“After the Vampire King was stripped of his power when his love sacrificed herself, the demon tried to manipulate the next wielder into returning to his world and enacting his revenge on the humans. When it didn’t work, he took out his rage on the creatures of this world. That’s when creatures learned just how powerful and destructive the demons of the other world truly are. If the being wasn’t stopped by the dagger’s new wielder, who knows what would have become of our world.”
“Who wielded Shadow Striker after the Vampire King?” I ask.
“The Vampire King and his love, Isolde, had a son, Lucian. After the Vampire King was stripped of his power, he was never seen again. Shadow Striker needed a wielder, so the demon showed Lucian how to activate it.”
“The Vampire King had a son?” I ask, surprised. “There aren’t any stories about that.”
“He did have a son. And no, there aren’t any stories about it. The Society made sure any mention of Lucian was erased from history.”
